Arvydas Sabonis and Brian Grant scored 21 points apiece and the
Portland Trail Blazers began a three-game road trip with an
82-77 victory over the undersized and undermanned New York
Knicks.

Rasheed Wallace scored 13 points, the 7-3 Sabonis grabbed 11
rebounds and Grant pulled down 10 for the Trail Blazers, whose
starting frontcourt outscored the Knicks' front line, 55-16.
Injuries have left New York with just 10 players, including no
true centers, as it was outrebounded, 45-34.

"Defensively, I thought our guys did a great job," Blazers coach
Mike Dunleavy said. "We did an incredible job on the boards."

"They won the game in the paint," Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy
said. "They scored in there and then they outrebounded us. I
don't put that just on our bigs. We didn't help our bigs
because they were engaged in blockouts, particularly early in
the game. You can't ask guys to block out when they are
undersized."

Portland led by as many as nine points in the fourth quarter but
went the final 4:17 without a basket. However, the Trail
Blazers forced a crucial five-second violation with 7.4 seconds
left to seal the win and move closer to their 16th consecutive
playoff berth, the longest current streak.

Charlie Ward had a career-high 19 points and 11 assists and
Allan Houston shot poorly but added 18 points for the slumping
Knicks, who have lost four of five and seven of nine. New York
has fallen into a tie with Cleveland for sixth place in the
Eastern Conference.

"We played hard, did the best we could," Ward said. "We didn't
make shots down the stretch, you can't fault the effort. I
think we played a pretty good game."

Wallace scored with 6:03 to go, giving the Blazers a 72-63 lead.
They still led 76-68 after another basket by Wallace with 4:17
left, but did not score from the field again.

A drive by John Starks, who scored 10 points, triggered an 8-2
burst for the Knicks. Houston scored from the left wing and
Sabonis made two free throws before Starks hit a pair from the
line and scored on a turnaround jumper to make it 78-76 with
1:21 remaining.

Houston and Charles Oakley missed shots on New York's next
possession and Grant made 1-of-2 from the line with 16 seconds
left. Houston drew a foul and made the first free throw before
intentionally missing the second. Starks ran down the rebound
and fed Houston for an open three-pointer that missed.

Grant grabbed another rebound and split another pair at the line
with 7.4 seconds to go. But the Knicks were out of timeouts and
Oakley could not find an open man with the inbounds pass. The
Blazers took over and Rick Brunson made two free throws to seal
it.

"I didn't get it in there," Oakley said. "We'd been in a lot of
close games. We had some chances, we blew them. We talked about
what we wanted to run, they double-teamed Allan and the outlet
wasn't there."

"I think our size had somethng to do with it but more than that,
I think we had good spacing," Grant said. "Tonight we were
physical on the glass, we were controlling the boards and got
some second-chance points."

Isaiah Rider scored 16 points for the Blazers, who shot 48
percent (31-of-65) from the field but committed 20 turnovers.
Portland gained a split of the season series.

"Against us in Portland, they were running the same plays,"
Rider said. "All those picks, but when they run plays like
that, our big man has to step up and show until you catch up and
then he can go back to his man. Last game in Portland, we
didn't do that at all and they took advantage of that."

Larry Johnson chipped in 10 points for the Knicks, who shot 38.5
percent (30-of-78) and made 12-of-13 free throws. Houston was
just 7-of-26 from the field.

"We tried to make it difficult for Houston to get shots," said
Dunleavy. "We wanted to contest Allan's shots and control the
glass. Our guys did a pretty good job of that. Our guys were
focused and for the most part, we stayed with our coverages."

Knicks guard Chris Childs, who had not played since February
22nd, made his return and scored two points in 13 minutes. But
New York was still without centers Patrick Ewing and Chris
Dudley and power forward Buck Williams, all of whom are expected
to miss the rest of the regular season.

The Blazers led by three points at halftime, but a three-pointer
by Ward gave the Knicks their first lead of the game at 48-46
with 8:10 remaining in the third quarter. Portland took the
lead for good at 56-55 with 4:12 left on two free throws by
Sabonis. He scored eight points in the period, which ended with
the Blazers holding a 63-57 lead.

Sabonis scored eight points and Grant and Rider added six each
in the first quarter as Portland bolted to a 25-20 lead. The
Knicks cut the deficit to 40-37 at halftime.